Apparatus for extinguishing fires on railroad-trains



(No ModeI.) I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. P. MOLAUGHLIN. 4

APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES 0N RAILROAD TRAINS. No. 367,350.

Patented July 26, 1887.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 (No Model.)

J. F. MOLAUGHLIN. APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES 0N RAILROAD TRAINS.

Patnted July 26, 1887.

A V ///////////////l/l///A N. PUERS. Plmwulhngnphur, Washington, D C.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES F. MOLAUGHLINJOF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

APPARATUS FOR EXT INGUISHING FIRES ON RAILROAD-TRAINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 367,350, dated July 26, 1887. Application filed March 22,1887. Serial No. 231,942. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, JAMES F. MOLAUGHLIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires on Railroad-Trains,

and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an electromechanical gas and fire extinguishing system for railway-trains, and has for its object to provide an adequate and effective apparatus of this description which, in event of an impending collision, accident, or disaster of'any kind, can be readily and conveniently operated by the depression of any one of a series of push-buttons or circuitclosers located at desirable points throughbut the train to simultaneously and automatically extinguish the fires in the respective stoves and arrest or cut off the flow of gas to the lamps or burners of the different cars.

For the attainment of this object my invention consists, essentially, in providing each car or coach with an overhead tank or reser voir containing an effective fire-extinguishing compound of any approved compositionsuch, for instance, as water saturated with alum or concentrated water of ammonia. Each tank or reservoir communicates by a suitable outlet or discharge pipe with the combustionchamber of its respective stove, and said'dis charge-pipe or conduit is provided with a gravity or weighted valve which is supported and held in a normally-closed position by an armature of an electro-magnet. The valves in the several pipes are automatically thrown open by the attraction of their supporting armatures to their respective electro-magnets, which are so arranged on an open electricalcircuit as to be energized by the depression of any one of the series of circuit-closers before mentioned.

My invent-ion consists, further, in providing each gas-pipe which communicates with the gas-supply tank with a similar valve normally open and an electro mechanical device the electro-magnet of which is included in the same electrical circuit, whereby the supply of gas is turned off simultaneously with the discharge of the compound into the respective stoves.

Myinvention consists, further, in a new and improved organization ofapparatus, arrangements, and combinations of parts, which will be more fully and accurately described hereinafter, and the specific points of novelty in which will be designated in the appended claims.

In'the accompanying drawings I have illustrated certain devices which are deemed sufficient for carrying out my invention; but I do not limit myself to special appliances.

Figure 1 is a perspective View, with parts I broken away and partly in section, of the terminal car (see Fig. 2) showing the location of the battery, the electrical connections, and the arrangement and construction of the reservoir, its discharge-pipe, the valve situated therein, the armature support, the electromagnet, and the stove. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatical View showing conventionally the circuit, the electrical connections, magnets, 850. Fig. 3 is a detail view with parts broken away illustratingthe weighted valve and the auxiliary electro-mechanical devices for operating the weighted valve both for the gas and fire extinguishing pipes. Fig. at is a detail view, partly in section, of a metallic plug for making a single electrical connection between separate cars. Fig. 5 is a similar view of a double plug for effecting a dual connection between the cars. Fig. 6 is a detail view of the metallic plug socket for either adouble or single connection,

oneof the wires shown being non-connected Referring to the drawings by numbers, 1 is the tank or reservoir, situated, as before stated,

overhead and in the center of the car, as shown in Fig. 1. This tank is preferably of the form illustrated, having the line of its bottom inclined so as to direct the greatest pressure of its suspended liquid contents over the mouth of the discharge-pipe 2.

The fire-extinguishing compound stored in the tank 1 may be of the composition before stated. However it will be perfectly obvious that any effective and equivalent extinguisher may be substituted, inasmuch as the composition ofthe same forms no component part ofmy invention.

The pipe 2, which communicates directly with the interior of the stove 3, is provided, ncaritsentrancctothetank1,withthe weighted valve 4.,which is normally closed by the valve rod resting in the support 6 on the end of the armature 7, and serves to keep the liquid suspended and prevents any fractional portion of the heat which enters the mouth of the pipe 2 from having any injurious influence upon the extinguishing compound. The valverod is provided with a suitable handle, 5, at its lower end and weight or ball 9 at its upper end, and terminates in a curved finger or extension which rests on the supporting-shoulder 6 of the armature 7, as shown in Fig. 3. The support 6 is formed with lateral sides or guards S 8 to prevent the valve-rod from being dislodged inadvertcntly by the jar or sway of the train.

The ball 9 of the valve 4 is of the required weight to cause the curved finger to exert sufiicient tension upon the support 6 and to open the said valve when the armature 7 is withdrawn by its attraction to the electromagnet 10 when the circuit is cl oscd. The magnets 10 10 are each mounted in a rectangular frame, 11, which in turn is attached to the ceiling or root of the car by suitable braces, 12 12.

The armature 7 is pivotally secured in any approved manner to the frame 11, and is provided with an adjusting-screw, 13, also supported upon the frame 11, to limit the play of said armature, which is further provided with a retracting-spring, 14, for the twofold purpose of steadying the armature and returning it to its position after the make and break of the circuit in which the magnet 10 is placed.

The same construction of valve and electromechanical devices shown in Figs. 2 and 3 are utilized for the gas supply tank, the location of which is shown by the magnets 53 53 in Fig. 2. Thus it will be readily understood that when the magnets 10 and 53 are energized by the make of the circuit from any circuitcloser, (shown in Fig. 2,) the valves of the gaspipes being normally open and the valves of the discharge-pipes 2 2 being, normally closed, the valves of the said discharge-pipes will be automatically thrown open, allowing theliquid to discharge itself into the stove, thereby instantaneously extinguishing the fire, and at the same time the supply of gas is stopped by the closing of the valves in the gas-pipes, as will be better understood from the explanation hereinafter.

Referring to Fig.2, before entering into a description of the electrical connections and circuits we will premise or suppose that the car shown in Fig. 1 is the baggage-car shown in Fig. 2, and that is the expresscar and the cab of the engine, all shown in dotted lines in the diagram, and electrically connected on a metallic circuit from the main battery 30, which is located, as before stated, in the rear car, 60.

16, 17, and 18 respectively designate three push-buttons or circuit closers, one'of which is suitably located in each car and connected in. multiple series, as shown; and 53 53 indicate, respectively, two magnets and their auxiliary armaturcs and valves, arranged, as previously explained, to shut off the gas when the circuit is closed.

The cars 60 and 70 and the engine 80 are electrically connected with each other by two cables, 19 and 20, the cable 19 consisting of a single insulated wire and having two single metallic plugs, one at each end, and the cable 20 consisting of two parallel insulated wires, as shown in Fig. 9, and a double plug of the construction shown in Figs. 5 and 7 on each extremity.

The single plug 38 (shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 4) consists of the handle 21, provided with alongitudinal central perforation, which merges into larger concavity 51, and the tapering metallic plug 22, provided with screw-threads upon its inner end and secured in and insulated from the handle 21. Both extremities of the cable 19 are each seen red to one of these single plugs. (See Fig. 2.)

The double plug 38 (illustrated in Figs. 5, 7, and 9) is similar in construction to the single, exceptthat the portion 22 is divided l0n gitudinally by a strip of insulation, thereby forming two current-conducting portions for the wires 29 and 295'. (See Fig. 9.)

The socket 2 3 is designed to be used in con junction with either a double or single plug, and consists of an exterior portion, 24, insulated from the interior conducting tubular portion,25,which in turn is divided by insulating material 26 into two semicircular conducting portions, 25 25. (See Figs. 6 and 8.) Thus the socket 23, having a tapering tubular recess, can be utilized either fora single or double plug; for if the plug shown in Fig. 4 were insorted in the said socket, and only one of the wires 50 and 32 or 51 and 31 were electrically connected to the line in theinterior of the car, only one of the portions 25 of the socket would be the path of the current. However, in order to distinguish between these two constructions, I have shown the double plug shaded dark and the single plug light in the diagram; and, furthermore, it may beherc added thatin practice such plugs, if used, will be so colconsequently causing the several fires in their respective stoves to be extinguished, and also to cut off the supply of gas from its respective tanks. stance would be through wires 31 82, wire 29 of cable 20, wires 34c 4, cable 19, wire 40, cir-- cuit-closer 16, wire 39, ret'urncable 19, wires 37, 36, and 35, magnet 10, wire 58, magnet 53, wire 42, magnet 10, wire 43, second return-cable 19, wire 44., magnet 10, wire 45, magnet 53, wire 59, magnet 10, wire 62, loop cable 19, and wire 46, back to battery. Similarly the depression of either of the circuitelosers 17 or 18 will energizeall the magnets 10 and 53.

In carrying out my invention the push-buttons are preferably located in the engine, baggage and express car, so as to be, as it were,

exclusively under the supervision of the employs or officials ofthe train. Again,no matter what style of battery is employed, the same may be used to advantage in a branch circuit for igniting gas and other desirable purposes.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The path of the current in this in- 1. The combination of the plug-socketshaving two separate eondueting-surfaces,with the insertible plugs, the circuit, the circuit-closers, the electro-magnets, their pivoted armatures, and the valve.

2. The combination, with one source of electricity, of the circuits, the valves, located, respectively, in the gas and fire extinguishing pipes, for the purpose described, and the electromagnetic valve mechanism for operating said valves by the make or break of the circuits, as specified.

3. The combination of aseries of overhead tanks or reservoirs, a series of pipes connecting said tanks with the combustionehambers of a number of stoves, a series of weighted valves located in said connectingpipes, a series of pivoted armatures supporting said valves in a normally-closed position, a series of eleetro-magnets arranged to attract their armaturesby the make of an electrical circuit, the circuit itself a suitable source of electricity, and means for making and breaking the said circuit, as specified.

4c. The combination of the overhead tank or reservoir having inclined bottom, as shown, the dischargepipe, the weighted valves, and the electromechanical means for operating the Seine by the make of an electrical circuit.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

J. F. llIoLAUGHLIN.

Vit ncsses:

E. L. WHITE, GEO. H. TIoHENoR. 

